Tosk answered the question about if something was done, "Perhaps when I cast my spell to protect myself from evil it wouldn't let the spirit be in the same location as I am.  That is sort of how it works.. kind of."

The ranger nodded at the suggestions of burning it - might make animals more willing to come here, involve the natural order a lot more closely. A shudder though; as this reeked of faith and magic, neither of which Falco was very confident on.

OOC: Calling back to the earlier perception check now that things have settled down a bit...

As the party pokes around Tosk notices a few items on a bookshelf. Flipping through the moldy remains of the bookcase reveals two items of note:


The Druid's Journal
Only a few pages left are legible but the druid that lived here appeared to have been a prolific writer as he detailed a lot of information in very tiny script. It appeared from the pages remaining that he lived with someone whom he was disgusted by, that he was preparing for some kind of ritual and was gathering supplies for it, and he had drawn a detailed map to an abandoned temple deeper in the forest.


The Ritual
The scrolls with the ritual notes are on were preserved in a case keeping them far more intact then the journals. Age still turned the page brittle and just removing it from the case caused a bit of crumbling but Renee is able to quickly decipher the intent.

It is a ritual presumably about protection on a large scale, a way to isolate an area from the rest of the world magically. As Renee continues to decipher it she comes to a horrible realization that the way this was ultimately to be done was to wound the very fabric of nature to such a point that it created a protective magical field around itself akin to a scab over a wound. How a druid could contemplate causing such deep damage and corruption to the very land itself is difficult to comprehend but the end result should have been that the whole Greenbelt would be covered by the impenetrable fog that Renee, Ursion, and Falco had encountered to the South. Animals and those holding blessed symbols of nature would be immune to its effects letting the natural flora and fauna along with their fey and druid allies to move around unimpeded but damning anyone else to wander until they died from starvation or exposure or were lucky enough to stumble blindly out of the affected area.

Renee points out that the effect of the ritual should have encompassed this entire area, not just be focused on the South and the ritual site appears to no longer be protected by the fog. Her best guess is that after the ritual was enacted it was somehow moved to be centered closer to the Stag Lord's fortress rather than where the ritual occurred however if the "wound" was healed then the effect should be broken no matter where in the world the fog was actually located.

Healing the wound isn't described but given how the scrolls talk about it as an organic wound it is not too large a leap to think that the spiritual wound could be treated like a regular wound: cleansing of infection and then binding the wound shut.

She nodded to Tosk. "That's why I suggested it. I knew it was not strong enough to protect us all, but I was banking on the chance that the mere casting of it might do something."

Then she considered a moment. "Let's get anything of worth out of here, then burn the place. Then see if we can fix the land."

Tosk couldn't agree more.  Burning it down would be the best option.

Instead of just setting it on fire we should break it down and have a controlled fire.  We can take any wood with us for future fires as well.

After explaining what she had found, Renee's eyebrow tweaked upward, and she read the scroll again, focusing specifically on the ritual. "Very interesting..." She said as she wandered a bit from the hut, slowly working her way back to the horses. The trauma of her ghostly encounter and the potential burning of the hut seemingly forgotten.

By the time she'd finished studying the ritual a third or fourth time, she had already produced a fresh sheet of vellum and a pen, and quickly set herself to copying the details onto a newer and more robust medium.

Ursion remained on the periphery with Renee, more notional protection than anything, but remaining within easy shouting distance.

"Let's just burn the damn thing and get out of here." he suggested. "Probably the scene of some tortured soul, and I've not the skill nor the knowledge to treat it properly." Of course maybe some of the others did, although they had yet to speak up about it if they were inclined to help move the spirit onward to its rest.

After Ursion spoke, Renee looked up from copying the ritual. "Unfortunately, my divine studies are still limited." She noted, the tone of her voice changing just enough that she actually did sound mournful of the fact that she couldn't help. She was the type to see any gap of knowledge as a personal failing, after all.

"Ursion... actually, I'm glad you're here." She finished copying the ritual and carefully stored the original away in her scroll case, then handed the Armiger the copy she'd made. "What is your opinion on the efficacy of this ritual as a defensive measure? Pros and cons, from your point of view?"

Ursion perked up slightly at the mention of the ritual, and took the book very gently in his gloved hands as she offered it to him. By the dabbled light coming through the canopy, his blue eyes poured across the tiny script, once, and then again. As he read he seemed to grow calmer, and more centered, and it occurred to her that it hinted at the demeanor that he possessed upon coming back from his private rituals away from camp.

"I would say that the ritual itself has been effective." he eventually replied, the tone suitable for a gathering before a magistrate or an assembled court. Carefully worded, almost ceremonial. "Given the age of the book, we can imply that the ritual has been in place for some time. We have first hand knowledge of just how difficult it was to penetrate, and yet it was enacted in such a way as to allow the native wildlife to pass unhindered. Wise I think, from a logistical standpoint." he met her eyes as he spoke, as a peer, seeming to expect her own analysis and reply in due turn. "Even against the Eagles, it seemed to have remained a formidable defense, and one that obscures enemy intelligence as well. It's impressive."

He handed the book back to her carefully, a tiny bit of page crumbling away to waft down to the grass. "But the best walls are of no avail if your castle is staffed by idiots. Whoever wrote that book was so careless as to leave it unencrypted, in plain sight and left behind. The tokens used for the sentient beings to cross have fallen into the hands of bandits, and there seems to be no verification beyond that point. No passcodes, no renewal of anything like a secret signal. It would seem that while the individual that created the ritual was powerful in his craft, and intelligent, they likely had little experience with military matters, and were ill disciplined, or replied on others who were lax in turn. Impressive in scale, but with a glaring flaw."

He glanced over to see how the others were doing in the hut before he looked back to the Slyph for her own take.

Renee gently nodded as she took the old text back from Ursion, one slender finger brushed against his in the exchange, but the contact was brief and her eyes were seemingly focused elsewhere in the moment. "Agreed. As an emergency defense, it would act as a powerful deterrent for the unprepared. A sort of... nation-sized drawbridge. You are also right that in time it is inevitable that someone would realize the secret to safe passage, after which it would act as little more than an inconvenience." Her attention wandered back to him. "We should obtain several blessed holy symbols of a nature god to share among each other, to protect ourselves from the fog. Gozreh would be the obvious candidate."

She shook her head and turned back toward the hut. "The incompetence of the ritual's makers goes deeper still. By corrupting the natural forces around them, they would very likely be inviting other dangers; both logistic, and supernatural." She tilted her head to the side. "One is reminded of the worldwound, for example. It is powerful magic, but a weapon that harms oneself in the long term is one that only a fool would wield. I wonder if the Kellid witches of Sarkoris were trying to do something similar before the corruption of the Abyss took hold?"

She looked back to the text. "But there may be something to salvage here. When next I have access to a laboratory, it would be enlightening to run some small-scale tests; if only to learn how to heal such a wound, so we could remove the fog and restore the land."

Ursion nodded in agreement. "It will certainly have to be dealt with at some point."

He could only wonder when they might next have access to a real center of learning. He feared that Renee might be waiting for some time... although she had proven resourceful.

He looked to the others to see if they would linger or just fire the hut straight away.

"I have a thought to entertain, and by the way go ahead and burn this place. Anyway, my thought, what if the book was left on purpose?" Then she held up a finger, as if to say wait. "I mean consider it. This place looks simply abandoned. Nothing really taken at all, as if they just...left. No signs really of a struggle either. Right?" She pointed out. "What if the owner just left one day...?" She stated, about what Urison stated regarding the book just being left there.

Ursion attended, and rubbed absently at the stubble on the right side of his face. "You're swaying that it could have been a deliberate plant?" he clairifed. "Left here purposefully to throw us off?" he considered it.

"Not impossible I suppose..." he cocked his head slightly as he spoke, although he seemed to think it very unlikely.

Tosk didn't know if it were a plant or if it was just left.It could also just be that the own left as you said but died somewhere before being able to do something with it?  We have it now though and if we can learn from it that is what is important.

The wind starts to blow and it whistles through the holes in the lean-to before dying down once again.

She pointed to Tosk, then pointed to her nose, indicating that she felt he was more right. "Still, there is something about the visions some of us got too. We should pay them heed." Then she looked to the others. "Alright, lets get anything we feel is salvageable from here, and purify the the building."

Tosk made one more comment before getting ready to burn the place.  "There are many Gozreh runes in the journal there.  That druid sure had a sick mind if he thought that poisoning the land would be the only way to keep civilization back."

"...if the land is poisoned you can't grow food, livestock can't feed, and the water goes sour." She said with a sour tone. "That happens, civilization cannot spread into that region to well if at all. It's like, salting the earth..."

A shrug and a nod at Radgonda.

"Yeah, twisted is correct, but it certainly achieves the goal."

Erlin uses her flint and tinder to get some kindling going but when she touches it to the structure the fire never jumps. Granted both the wood and most things inside are waterlogged from rain but even the bits of the leanto that are bone dry just never seem to catch fire.

Erlin tried to get a fire to catch, but either her fire making skills had gone to pot or something was preventing the old hut from burning.  Frustrated, she put her tools away in a frustrated huff.

"Besmara's ball sweat, I give up.  Let's just get out of here..."

She resisted the urge to take her axe to the hut...barely.  She stormed away from the clearing, her eyes burning with rage.

(OOC: leave the clearing back towards where the group came from, about 50 yards)

Tosk watched on as Erlin tried to light the hut on fire but when nothing seemed to happen and she cursed aloud.  Tosk was perplexed.  "There must be some sort of magic that isn't allowing the place to be burned down.  I guess we can just let it go for now and maybe return sometime later with a better source of fire?"

"Or a priest..." Ursion chimed in. "In any case, I think your right Tosk. There is not much we are going to be able to do here."

He gestured to the brittle time in Renee's hand. "But we found the book, for what that's worth. Let's mount up...we've plenty of daylight left."

He moved to unhitch his horse, and to stow his equipment back on his saddle.

"That's an image I could have lived without." She said with regards to Erlin's words. "Anyway, I agree. Let's get moving. Everyone, let's go." She moved to unhitch her horse, and mount up.

Renee paid no attention to the efforts to burn the hut, and instead focused her attention on the journal, face buried in the pages even as she attempted to mount her horse with one hand.